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prior listings

 

 

• octaplex 10/24/02 
  Description: personal photography/graphics portfolio (Flash)
  Comments: There's actually two versions of the site, both accessible from the splash page – the old "Red Edition 2000-2002" and the new "V8."  The tagline for the old version ("hard style") seems quite appropriate to me – crisp lines and superb graphics (love the thumbnails) plus one of my favorite color schemes.  The content, just like the striking site design, is A1 – outstanding photographs plus digital art in the form of wallpapers.  The new version, launched in the middle of September, is an attempt to simplify – it's still a work in progress but there's many new pictures, with 5 of the 9 sections having been completed.  "I tried to keep it as simple as possible to build a better view for my pictures."  The design of V8 is markedly different than the old version, but just as good.  This time, it's minimal with a nicely done Flash interface – no need to scroll – clean, crisp, and simple.  Spend some time there and enjoy both versions – it's definitely worth it...
   
• fivedays 10/23/02 
  Description: An experimental online diary, interactive narrative. Or whatever you make of it. (Flash/Broadband)
  Comments: "Hard work means hard parties" and when 20 students from TTVO in Tampere, Finland took a 5 day journey to Karlskrona and back, they decided to document it in the form of an experimental diary.  Today's pick, presented via Flash ("it's broadband baby") takes you through each of the 5 days and they warn that you'll have to "explore, search & find" your way through the site.  I'm not giving any clues either, but I'll let you know that there's info on each of the students and the daily entries are interesting combinations of words, images and sound – it's really a fun site and the students built it.  "This is not just another traditional website.  This is something else.  After all, this all took five days of our time."  And I, for one, appreciate it...  [linkdup unfiltered]
   
• Callistonian.NET 10/21/02 
  Description: elegant personal domain full of splendid things
  Comments: There's a bit of a mystery to Marykate's most recent post in her journal.  It seems "three is back" but she says you'll have to ask if you want the URL or if you're not sure who/what "three" is.  6 people have already commented that they know what it is and would like the URL.  I'm glad three's back (I guess) but I don't have a clue who/what it is.  Another entry in the journal gives a "sneak preview" of an "art/charm" project – Marykate's "thoughts in pictures."  It's a cool graphic with the words "never give up without a fight/a great dream awaits you..."  In her webdesign section, there's a similar message – "the dream must absolutely come true."  There's a lot of enjoyable, creative content in Marykate's personal space, which she describes as "a beautifully elegant personal domain."  You'll have to use your [back] button in spots, but there's plenty to explore.  "Charm" is actually the art gallery.  There's also a photography section, Photoshop brushes for download, and a section called "17 wings" with tutorials/resources and a web directory.  Green is her favorite color and she has about a dozen different nicknames.  Marykate strikes me as an interesting personality and the overall site design rocks (If small fonts are a problem for you, I'd suggest using NS or Mozilla, so you can adjust font sizes).  Here's the astounding part (to me, anyway) – Marykate is a 17-year-old high school student...
   
• Typographica 10/17/02 
  Description: A daily journal of typography featuring news, observations, and open commentary on fonts and typographic design.
  Comments: When Joshua, the founder of today's pick, launched the site on May 1st, he and his family were busy moving.  He said he was "going to [be] busy for awhile" and decided to "write about [his] furniture because [he had] no clue how huge this blog is going to get."  By the 4th, he got into gear, and by the end of May, there were over 120 posts with the help of over 30 guest editors.  The blog's definitely not about furniture, by the way – it's all about fonts and typographic design.  There were several similar type sites (pun intended) that I reviewed in 2000 that are no longer online, so I'm glad to have found Joshua's site.  Reload the main page a few times and you'll notice that the "nameplate" changes.  Each "blogtopper" is a unique visual treat/type sample submitted by a user.  In many cases, the nameplate was submitted by a font designer featuring one of his/her own creations.  Very cool!  Powered by the latest version of Movable Type, not to mention The Letter W (hehe), today's pick is clearly an excellent resource for anyone interested in typography...
   
• pixel.nascimpact.com 10/15/02 
  Description: pixel art plus tutorials and downloadable goodies
  Comments: I know.  It's a strange affliction, this thing I have for pixels.  It's getting out of hand this month but pixel art is downright cool and I've just got to do my thing.  On October 1st, I told you about the "amazing realism" of the pixelized apartment at fuz.dk. My pick on October 4th had "pixel" in its name, though it was the photography that grabbed me.  On October 11th, there were Nevr's cool pixelated models of houses to play with.  Pixels, pixels, pixels!  Today's pick seems to fit perfectly into my October obsession with all things pixel.  The "Pixel Art" section has 10 different tasty pieces.  The detail of the building and people in "Garden Party" is astounding and Nicolas a/k/a Nasc Impact also has an apartment artwork that rocks.  There's an animated piece done at the "request of certain members of neokulture" that I liked, too, but I better warn you that it's on the graphic side – gee, those tiny pixelized pools of blood sure look real.  The site's all in French but Google's language tools did a pretty good job translating, so I also explored Nasc's tutorials.  There's also some wallpapers, brushes, and WinAmp skins for download, and a "Flash" section with several samples of games he's been working on.  Excellent site design with pixels galore – definitely a cool site.  I'll try to keep the rest of October pixel-free but I ain't makin' no promises...
   
• walrus.nu 10/13/02 
  Description: Poetry soup. With croutons...
  Comments: "This is where I cry havoc and unleash my words. I've been writing bits and pieces since school, but never bothered with an outlet until I started putting my stuff on the net, a number of years ago."  Though Dan's current domain has been in existence for a little over 2 years, he's got 4 poems on the site written from 1991 to 1993.  The next oldest poem is from early 1997, which I'll guess is the year that Dan actually started using the web as an outlet, though I'm not sure where the old site resided.  "The style of writing to be found here is not a style I would employ at work, in a letter, or any other sane context: it's my creative side, pushing its way out through the cracks in my concrete soul. I break rules here and conventions."  The site design is clean and simple with a choice of color schemes and I particularly enjoyed the "diary" and "snippets" sections.  "Wordart" is interesting, too, and includes some others' images and words.  Dan's personal creative space is unpretentious and engaging...
   
• microgarbage 10/12/02 
  Description: gathers small interactions (Flash)
  Comments: I'm glad there's two "slimes" to choose from because #2 is neat.  It's a type of organism found only in new media environments.  Okay, so maybe hyperactive little flash critters aren't your thing and you prefer something more useful.  Maybe you'd like to translate something into morse code (yeah, right) – you can do that here, too.  Today's pick is a large collection of Flash experiments and has a number of things I haven't seen elsewhere – things that collect data from the user and render it in interesting ways.  "Relationships" is a good example – users submit various attributes about themselves and the piece displays a "society" of users based on submitted data.  Another piece ("simple typo #2") displays characters typed by the user, each formed from certain squares in a 5x5 grid.  It's actually a pretty good representation of how one builds pixel type.  The anonymous person behind the amusements also shares some of his/her actionscript savvy in the "institute" by making code snippets available.  You might also enjoy "linkage overwritable" in the "communication" section – links on the fly in a whole different light.  Today's pick hardly lives up to its name (the "garbage" part, that is)...
   
• seacreative 10/9/02 (#1) 
  Description: in the mad world of sea (Flash)
  linkscape 10/9/02 (#2) 
  Description: architects and architecture sites and links to the best design and experimental sites of the net
  Comments: Two picks for one with half the verbosity.  Today's first pick is a showcase of extraordinary illustrations.  Scans of colorful prints and drawings and a "street" section of "underground stickers" plus some tasty desktops make up the content.  The second pick is where I found the first one.  Saying "let's eat architecture" with a literally tasty graphic below the dropdown list navigator, it provides oodles of links to architecture and design sites.  After checking out just three of the listed sites I wasn't familiar with (including today's first pick) and realizing how well the listings are filtered for quality, I just had to add today's second pick to the growing explore the web! list.  Enjoy, explore and remember to have some fun today...
   
• lookupthere 10/6/02 
  Description: a gallery of illustrations
  Comments: Today's pick isn't about the design.  The site navigates well and the design is clean, but Josh is an artist, not a web designer.  The source says the pages were generated with one of those big, typical portal's "PageBuilder" application.  It did the job.  It's really about the art.  Josh is a talented illustrator and the site is a few years old.  The "old" version has two volumes of works and the "new" has one series of works so far.  I bookmarked the site a long time ago because I liked what I saw.  When I just recently revisited, the new section really grabbed me – mixed media, colored pencil, ink, and markers – I like his style...
   
• pixeljuice 10/4/02 
  Description: exploring creativity (Flash)
  Comments: Today's pick is a "project exploring creativity" from a guy who calls himself JeeJee.  The content is primarily visual, presented via a clean, minimal Flash interface – I find the simplicity and quiet look and feel of the site quite appealing.  Though there's few words on the site, the content speaks for itself.  There's several photos I really liked – one of people sitting in what looks like a dimly-lit restaurant or tavern and another of people on a dark, narrow, building-surrounded street with the brightness of a daylight sun in the distance.  I also liked the close-up shots of faces, focused on the subjects' eyes and some of the more abstract photos as well.  JeeJee's only made one "movie" so far but promises more coming soon and he's also made a "pong" game that's fun to play.  It's different from others in that you control your paddle with the cursor instead of the arrow keys.  The "you Loser" message I got prompted me to try again (and again).  I got better at the game after figuring out that simply clicking on the paddle will hold unto it – I was holding the button down before which was hindering my ability to move the mouse smoothly.  Cool.  This clean and simple personal space provides glimpses into one's creativity with a little fun on the side...
   
• Photomatisme 10/2/02 
  Description: faces of anonymous websurfers
  Comments: Does the Internet have a face?  Sure, some sites include a mugshot of the person behind them, but all-in-all, it's easy for people to hide behind their sites and present just what they want to present publically – hardly like talking to someone face-to-face.  Then, there's the site's visitors.  Who are they?  It's hard to know.  So, the web may indeed have a face, but you seldom see it.  Today's pick changes all that – it's been around a few years and I have to admit that coolstop is hardly the first to recognize it.  The French tagline translates to English as "test of filing for a face of the Internet" and the content is hundreds of anonymously submitted photos of faces, each telling its own little story.  There's some side attractions as well and if people pics interest you, you're in for some fun browsing...